Review: Cherryripe Brasserie, Watson

Last Saturday Jarrod and I decided we wanted to try somewhere new for brunch and I remembered a few people had talked about Cherryripe Brasserie in Watson. I looked it up online and it had fairly decent reviews so we decided to go. When we got down to the Watson shops there were cars everywhere and it was a lot busier than I expected but Cherryripe itself was fairly quite with about half of their tables inside full and no one sitting outside.

When we walked in I wasn’t sure whether they had table service or not. There was nothing around that really indicated what the system was so I awkwardly asked someone making coffee if we were ok to sit anywhere and was told yes. A few minutes later someone else came up and asked if we had been served so it sounds like the system isn’t working very well. We were handed the breakfast menu and advised the lunch menu was up on the board because it was being updated. I’m not sure whether that meant the board was the new menu or the old though.

Large Chocolate Milkshake with extra icecream ($6)

First up, as with most of our cafe visits, was the shakes! When we were provided the menu we weren’t given the drinks menu, I suppose they expected we’d be ordering coffee? Eventually we were able to order and we opted for the large chocolate milk shake with additional icecream ($0.50 extra) and they were quite large! Much bigger than expected, ice cold and of a decent consistency for a milkshake. They also tasted good. Not too sugary or chocolatey but also didn’t just taste of milk.

French Toast – Served with maple syrup, bacon and fresh strawberries ($12)

Just in case I hadn’t eaten enough french toast recently I decided to give Cherryripe’s version a go. It was the promise of maple syrup, bacon AND strawberries that enticed me as, in my experience, it is rare to have all 3. The toast was well made with a little bit of crunch and none of the sogginess which can happen with french toast. The berries were nice and sweet and the bacon plentiful. I doubt it was real maple syrup but it still tasted ok when everything was dunked into it. The only downfall here was that it waited at the kitchen window for about 5 mins before it was brought to the table and wasn’t as warm as I’d like.

Jarrod decided to go with the lunch menu and chose the beef burger which appears to have endless bacon! The chips were nice and crispy with a delicious beer batter and they weren’t so hot you burn the roof of your mouth the instant you eat them. Jarrod enjoyed the burger but found the bun a bit too bready, it was quite massive.

Overall the food was good, the atmosphere was ok and the service was average. I got the impression the staff would have liked to be anywhere but there.

Even though the food tasted ok I don’t know if I would be in a hurry to get back there.

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5 thoughts on “Review: Cherryripe Brasserie, Watson”

Ugh, I’m sorry you had such bad service and experience. I hate when that happens, especially when it’s somewhere new that you’re trying. It looks nice but no, the whole thing sounds like a total letdown.

Aahh, that can be confusing when restaurants don’t make it clear about the seating. I always prefer some sort of sign that says to seat yourself or wait for the hostess. That’s too bad the service wasn’t very good, but I’m glad the food wasn’t bad at least. Hopefully you’ll find a better place to try next!